How Musician Kishi Bashi Balances Classical With Experimental

For his new album, K Ishibashi may have already gotten the best stamp of approval possible. “I like this better than the last one,” his eight-year-old daughter told him of “Lighght,” his second album as Kishi Bashi, out May 13 on Joyful Noise.

The album and 2012′s “151a” have a whimsical quality, both lyrically and musically, and he also makes music by creating loops, a complex technique. To him, children can be a good barometer for music. “They’re so pure, they just love music,” he says. “There’s no reservations, they’re not jaded. They just like to dance and they like to sing, so I perform a lot in front of kids when I have the opportunity.”

Ishibashi, a self-described “geeky violin kid” who began playing at age seven and attended Berklee College of Music, talked with Speakeasy about the album, which he says is inspired by composers such as Tchaikovsky and Mozart, and prog bands like Electric Light Orchestra and Pink Floyd.

How has your songwriting process changed from album to album?

The musical process is in general the same. It’s me coming up with lots of ideas. There wasn’t a real concept behind it except that I wanted it to be a bit more hi-fi. I’m still home recording, but I definitely wanted to feature a lot of musicianship. My first album was, in my head, pure pop, somewhat experimental but definitely stripped down – not stripped down, but simple. I tried to focus on bringing back good, old fashioned musicianship and try to showcase some that around songs. I tried to write some more sophisticated songs harmonically, and then lyrically try to take it a step further by incorporating poetry and larger ideas than just sounds and words.

Do you write and perform everything?

Oh yeah, I’m a solo artist. I record everything. I don’t have a band really. I spend a lot of time at home alone in front of my computer with microphones. I can’t play drums so I had my friend record, but I write everything by myself.

How do you manage all these musical ideas?

Sometimes I can’t manage it. My approach towards creating these songs is that I layer as much as possible, I try to put as many ideas as I can. I just layer and layer and layer. And then I mix the album with an engineer. So I keep in mind I won’t be able to manage mixing this later, at that point I start muting things and taking things away, so that basically each section has a new sonic idea, something new happens. I think that’s what keeps it interesting even though its rooted around song. Then I make sure it doesn’t conflict with the general idea of the song, the message and melodies I feel are important.

Which generally comes first for you: Music or lyrics?

In my case, which I’ve heard is not the case for some people, I hear music first, always. I hear a sound and then words are inspired by the sound and then from that I create a story and connect the words into a story. Or if I choose a poetic way, it’s more of a general idea. It’s always music first, and it’s more like the sound of the words are like an instrument to me.

Tell us about the title of the album, “Lighght.”

It’s a poem by the minimalist poet Aram Saroyan. He wrote it in 1965. It’s a one-word poem and it broke a lot of conventions in that it’s a word that you could read, but also the pronunciation is the same. The feeling that it evokes/provokes is something that is larger than what it is. It’s like the idea of breaking classical conventions, literary forms, and having fun but maintaining the beauty of it. I could totally relate to the idea behind this poem. Being a classical musician and ultimately trying to keep the legacy of songwriting, I still feel myself very experimental and trying new things as far as sound is concerned.

Your music has a very joyful quality. Is that just who you are as a person?

No. I mean, I’m not depressed that much, but I think a lot of what I try and create with this Kishi Bashi project is that when I make this music and am inspired by it, I go with the textures and sounds that uplift myself. To some extent I’m like, “My fans are gonna like this.” I don’t try to let that dictate where I’m going with it but I like making upbeat music. There’s a lot of depressing music out there and I feel like if there’s one thing I can do to contribute to someone’s day, to the world, I feel like I found something that I’m pretty good at and I enjoy doing it.